To: President Donald Trump, The North Carolina State House, The North Carolina State Senate, and Governor Roy Cooper
Stop criminalizing special needs children
Special needs children in our society need services and have the right to a free and appropriate public education. Adjudicating them does not meet that need. Fund services for mental healthcare and stop schools from adjudicating special needs children for their disabilities.
Why is this important?
With budget cuts to mental health care services, schools have begun the practice of pressing charges against special needs children for behavior directly related to their disabilities instead of offering required services and following educational federal mandates to practice a manifestation determination. My 11 year old son now has a criminal record for the school's derelict actions in responding to his specific disability. This is the second school to respond to my son's disabilities, not by offering appropriate services, but by criminalizing him and pressing charges for non-injury incidents. Bullying triggered my son's disability and his inappropriate responses were his reactions to provocations. None of my son's actions resulted in anyone needing a band-aid nor even a trip to see a school nurse(or any medical attention). Stop adjudicating special needs children for actions directly relating to their disabilities. Fund mental health care services, now.